Thanks to the efforts of Pilot Mountain resident Chet Jessup, and the approval of both the Surry County Board of Commissioners and the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners, a bridge in Mount Airy will be named in honor of a deputy who was killed on duty 47 years ago, pending approval by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

The structure will be named for James Billups Trevathan, who had been on the job just six months when he was gunned down by a man who Trevathan was chasing after the man had been involved in a couple of hit and run wrecks.

Jessup has been working to have bridges, roads, and other public structures named after local law officers who have been killed in the line of duty. In all, six such people have lost their lives locally while serving in law enforcement, and the naming of the N.C. 103 bridge for Trevathan will be the final of the six.

Although Trevathan was killed nearly five decades ago, a loss like that leaves permanent scares. He has relatives, and very likely friends and co-workers still living today who remember the pain and emptiness felt when he was lost.

Even more, the community is diminished when a tragedy of this magnitude occurs. Even now, after all of these years, memorializing his sacrifice in a public, permanent way is the right thing to do, and we urge the North Carolina Department of Transportation to move forward with the request.